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Feb 26, 2017

We have seen 3d printed buildings before but most of them were prototypes, built off-site or not used afterwords, but nothing compares to this house built by Apis Cor.

Apis Cor used a unique house 3d printing machine they developed and made an on-site house in 24 hours for the cost of some 10000 USD. It has surface of 38 square meters (409 square foot) and has been built in Stupino town, Moscow region, Russia.
The finished house is fully livable with all the appliances. Very cool!

Here is the very interesting presentation video:

Looks like 3d printing houses is a technology that has fully matured now. It will have interesting effects on housing market.

Feb 24, 2017

New Cura 2.4 is released by Ultimaker. It has many new features and improvements. Here are just some key novelties:

Project saving / opening. Cura 2.4 now lets you save your build plate configuration, which includes all your active machine’s meshes and settings too. Even more conveniently, when you reopen your project file, you’ll see that all build plate configurations and settings are exactly as you left them when you last saved the project.

Search Settings. Need to tweak a setting in a hurry? It’s now easy to search custom settings via the side panel.

Editing start / end g-code. If you need to alter the start and end g-code settings for your single-extrusion machines, the new Cura 2.4 lets you do just that.

Multiply object function. We know that duplicating an object multiple times can be a hassle, so we’ve made life easier for you. Simply right-click an object, and you can multiply it by a variable amount.

Streaming printer monitor view. Selected camera snapshots don’t really tell you much about how your print project is progressing. Now, you’ll be able to follow every second of your 3D print (if you want to), using the live streaming function. It’s an effective way to minimize errors while printing.

Slicing disabled? Now you’ll know why. It’s a bit frustrating when your slicing is blocked by settings with error values, but you don’t know which settings to change to make things right again. Now, a message will appear, clearly outlining what needs to be done to get your print back on track.

Ultimaker 3 printing profiles. The initial and final printing temperatures reduce oozing during PLA/PLA, PLA/PVA and Nylon/PVA prints. This means printing a prime tower is now optional (except for CPE and ABS, which we’re working on). The new Ultimaker 3 printing profiles boost reliability and reduce print time.

Astronauts on International Space Station 3d printed a first space art object named "Laugh".

From project description:

#Laugh is a collaboration between Israeli artist Eyal Gever and the California-based company Made In Space, which owns and operates the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF), the ISS' commercially available 3D printer.

The project began Dec. 1, 2016, when Gever and his team launched an app that converts the sound waves of users' laughter into a digital 3D model, or "laugh star." More than 100,000 people generated their own laugh stars throughout December, Made In Space representatives said.

App users then voted on their favorite laugh star. The winner was Naughtia Jane Stanko of Las Vegas, whose model was beamed up to the ISS and printed out Friday

Here is a very useful DIY 3d printable control unit that can send custom g-code scripts and macros via 32 programmable keys. It can be used on almost any machine that uses g code, like CNC mills, 3d printers, laser cutters and other. It is powered with Arduino Nano.

The "Gcode Sender" was developed and released by James Sierra. Here is his description of the project:

This project is very much like using Pronterface or Repetier Host manual control to send gcode instructions to your printer while connected to the computer via USB cable, but instead using an Arduino Nano connected to a small keypad to send the Gcode scripts/macros.Gcode sender is intended to work for 3D printers as well as a CNC mills and laser engravers. Any machine that uses gcode.This setup allows one to send highly customized gcode scripts/macros to the printer with a push of a button. I've tested all of the scripts I included in the sketch. Any one of them can be replaced or edited.In the sketch, i tired to include a lot of comments to make it easier to tweak the code to suit your own needs.Communication between Gcode Sender and printer is through serial communication (Tx, Rx). On RAMPS style boards the AUX-1 port can be used. Specifics on wiring can be found in the Wiring.zip file. Be sure that Tx out wire on the Gcode Sender is connected to Rx on printer and Rx is connected to Tx. In Repetier firmware, I had to enable Bluetooth serial port to make use of the AUX-1 port.

Here is an attachment made from plywood that can hold a pencil for Delta configuration machines. it can turn them into simple plotters enhancing your tool options.
Video of plotter attachment in action connected to RDelta 3d printer:

Feb 6, 2017

Tropical Labs team made a coffee maker into a Delta 3d printer. Interesting hack. Tropical Labs engineers have been developing a flexible design for ultra-affordable 3D printers and this a part of their efforts.

Video of the Delta printing:

Printer features:

Coffee maker, Tropical Labs used an old Norelco 12 model they found at a thrift shop, but any coffee maker with a hot plate could potentially work

TogleFritz developed a futuristic four legged robot you can make with some basic 3d printing and electronics skills.

Project description:

Jeb is a quadruped robot that the code in this repository is designed to control. Quadruped robots are robots with four legs. Jeb is designed with three degrees of freedom per leg. Each leg is actuated by three servos. The first servo moves the leg forward/backward, the second servo moves the leg up and down, and the third servo bends the leg in the middle. With four legs and three servos per leg, the robot is driven by 12 servos in total.

Feb 3, 2017

Brian Benchoff developed a 3d printable DIY parabolic reflector WiFi antenna for a very popular ESP8266 module. The reflector is s a 19-inch diameter dish, with an F/D ratio of 0.5 and took some 10 hours to print.

It is covered with thick adhesive backed aluminum foil. The real "duct tape".

It has a gain of some 16 to 17 dBi.

Project description:

Recently, I was asked to come up with a futuristic, space-ey prop for an upcoming video for the 2017 Hackaday Prize. My custom-built, easily transportable parabolic antenna immediately sprang to mind. The idea of a three-meter diameter parabolic dish was rejected for something that isn't insane, but I did go so far as to do a few more calculations, open up a CAD program and start work on the actual design. As a test, I decided to 3D print a small model of this dish. In creating this model, I inadvertently created the perfect WiFi antenna for an ESP8266 module using nothing but 3D printed parts, a bit of epoxy, and duct tape.

Source article posted on Hackaday with in-depth description and the entire process documented:

A few days ago an accident with fatal consequences happened in Berkeley with a young couple found dead. The first reports were full of misleading information and fear mongering writing about "laser 3D printer" emitting carbon monoxide that killed those people.

Here is cool looking retro contact 3d scanner which gives 3d point cloud and wireframe to an old IBM PC.
Ah, the old days... I miss them. First PC I saw was ancient Hungarian clone of ... something ...

Source: unknown. Let me know if you have any additional information about this device.

Feb 1, 2017

Tech2C from Australia made a video on how he uses his 3d printer as a plotter. He attached a pen to his extruder and uses is to draw on a paper. He also goes into how he uses Cura, g-code and various settings to get the best drawing.